[open]

[lumelume]

WHO: Mado and you!
WHAT: Just a weird asshole causing disturbances in the Gallows and surrounding area, explicitly here to make friends!!
WHEN: Kingsway!
WHERE: Around and about!
NOTES: Possible NSFW depending on who shows up and what their intentions are!

I. The Gallows Courtyard

He hasn't been kicked out yet, so Mado has to make the most of the time he has left. He's not overtly panhandling, but he is busking, with a floppy old hat put out to collect coins while he alternates between doing acrobatic feats and magic tricks, taking breaks to simply shake a tambourine and sing beautiful, plaintive Antivan love songs.
He plays to passersby, strolling alongside them and, at times, offering them opportunities to join.

"A song for you, ser!" he calls, and Maker have mercy on the victim.

II. Lowtown

Hightown being far out of his budget when it comes to entertainment, Mado can be found in some of the slummier taverns, offering services similar to his street busking but with hope of receiving drinks rather than money.

He sits on a table, crooning a drinking song while several of the local boozehounds sway and slosh their mugs around, at least one of them weeping with passion.

His eye is easily caught by a face either familiar or interesting, and it isn't long before he slips over with a bow and a brilliant smile.

III. The Ferry

Periodically, a little brown-and-white spotted dog will hop onto the ferry right behind someone, sitting close and casually looking around as if it belongs to them.
It's the very same dog that been seen wandering around the Gallows, begging and doing tricks for scraps, but the owner, if it has one, has not yet been identified.

Comments

[keenly]

It’s a beautiful song, the story a common one in all cultures and all generations. Those stories are why Colin rejected Lexie at first. There’s something comforting about hearing something so familiar and yet so different.

“You have a beautiful voice,” he says when it’s over, deeply moved.

[lumelume]

Many thanks, friend, Mado chipperly replies, sketching another bow.

[keenly]

“I’m Colin.” A shy smile. “Um. I’m a...healer here. Th-thanks for letting me practice my Antivan.”

[lumelume]

"Amador!" comes the cheery reply, and his hand is thrust forward to shake Colin's, should he meet it.

"Now I will practice my Trade!" It's a joke, at least mostly-- he seems to speak it fluently, if heavily accented.

[keenly]

A chuckle. He has the feeling this man has never met a stranger, and that’s somehow reassuring. He shakes the offered hand.

“What brought you here?”

[lumelume]

"I came to meet my beloved cousins, Kostos and Nikos Averesch," he says easily, "are you part of Riftwatch? Do you know them?"

Oh he's so terribly proud.

[keenly]

“I am, and I do. They’re...”

Given what Kostos has seen of him, he can’t exactly complain about him being a know-it-all. Nikos tries very hard not to be liked but hasn’t actually given a reason for Colin to do so.

“They’re exceedingly Nevarran.”

[lumelume]

"Is that how you'd describe them? I suppose I've never met anyone from Nevarra before."
He taps his chin.

"I'm sure they'll cheer up eventually. It sounds like a lot of very serious things happen here."

[keenly]

"A lot of serious things," Colin agrees. "It's good to hear music. Makes things feel less serious. Really, that's appreciated."

[lumelume]

"Well this I can always provide!" He shakes his tambourine again, excited that the topic has come this way again.

"I am warned I should perhaps stay out of the..." He turns around and gestures around the Gallows. "This area. Is it really called the Gallows?"

[keenly]

"It is." He is not interested in explaining to this super upbeat man why it is called that. "Your cousins aren't letting you stay with them?"

[lumelume]

Still smiling, Mado shakes his head.

"They were afraid I'd ask for things! But it's all right, I don't need much. When the weather's fair, I sleep outside, and there's plenty to eat, around and about."

[keenly]

"That's...that's nobs for you." A grin and a chuckle.

[lumelume]

"Not my beloved cousins!" gasps Mado, with perhaps more drama than is necessarily called for, but he is, mysteriously, still smiling.

"I expected little else, to tell you the truth! I'm happy they're letting me in their life at all."

[keenly]

Aw. Either this man is camped outside the Gallows with nothing except a song to his name purely out of familial love, or he really does want something. As cynical as Colin has been in the past, he actually wants to give this man the benefit of the doubt.

"What made you come looking for them?"

[lumelume]

An embarrassed little shrug.

"Things with the law in Rialto had gotten too familiar, you could say!" He's still smiling, albeit more sadly. "I thought it best to find a new stomping ground, and perhaps seek out family while I was at it."

[keenly]

The implication is that Amador didn't have family in Rialto. It's not polite for a stranger to ask for confirmation of something like that, but it does make Colin think about what he would do to find family, and he feels...moved.

"Um." He swallows. "I live in Hightown. I have a spare bedroom. There's servants for anything you can't do yourself. It all belongs to my friend, she lives elsewhere, but she says I can have anyone I want as a guest."

[lumelume]

"Oh, how kind of you!"

The answer is enthusiastic, but slightly evasive.

"But truthfully, amico, I find walls rather restricting. I have everything I need out in the streets, after all." He gestures around with a smile, no doubt oblivious to the fact that, unlike in Antiva, it gets truly cold here in the winter months.

[keenly]

That stirs Colin even more. Definitely not here just to get something.

"You wouldn't have to stay in the flat all the time," he points out. "But you'd have a bed, food, a bath...and it's about to start getting cold. I don't want you wind up in Darktown."

[lumelume]

"Then perhaps I shall take you up on it," Mado says, tapping his chin, "you said it was in Hightown? I expect that's the highest tier of the city?"

[keenly]

"Yes. Um." A one-shoulder shrug. "Want to come with me? I'm about to go there now. You don't have to stay if you don't like it, but you'll know where it is."

[lumelume]

"Oh! No, I mustn't, there's still so much daylight and coins to be made!"
He pauses, bouncing on his heels.

"I can meet with you later, if you like!"

[keenly]

"Of course! I...can you read?"

[lumelume]

He beams. "Not at all!"